BAFTA winner Emma Mackey (Sex Education) is set to play the White Witch in Netflix‘s Narnia movie from filmmaker Greta Gerwig, sources have confirmed to Deadline.
Netflix declined to comment. Mackey joins a cast that will also include Daniel Craig, as uncle of Digory Kirke, and Meryl Streep as lion Aslan the Great.
The film will reportedly adapt The Magician’s Nephew, the sixth novel in the Narnia series from author C.S. Lewis, which tells the origin story of Narnia. The story centers on Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, who discover the magical world of Narnia through Digory’s uncle’s magic. Production is expected to take place next year.
Netflix revealed in 2018 that it would develop new series and film projects based on Lewis’s beloved The Chronicles of Narnia series, bringing Gerwig on board to write and direct the first movie in 2020. As previously reported, the film will get an exclusive two-week Imax global run for Thanksgiving 2026 in advance of its debut on the streamer.
Previously collaborating with Gerwig on her Warner Bros phenomenon Barbie, Mackey is best known for her role as Maeve Wiley on Netflix’s hit series Sex Education. Other film credits include Emily, in which she played author Emily Brontë, and Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile. Upcoming, she’ll be seen playing the title role in James L. Brooks’ Ella McCay, also starring in J.J. Abrams’ untitled new movie and Julia Ducournau’s Alpha.
THR was first to the news of Mackey’s Narnia casting.
